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The ISA is an intensive program that matches tech-based startups with mentors, seed funding and product development expertise to accelerate their business. The ISA is powered by NewBoCo (New Bohemian Innovation Collaborative), a nonprofit organization that focuses on accelerating world-changing ideas from Iowa.

The programming started Monday morning and will continue with a full week of orientation workshops hosted at the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance. Then teams will be introduced to agile and strategic planning, according to the release.

The Iowa Startup Accelerator started in 2014 with ten teams in its first cohort. Up until 2016 the ISA used a traditional accelerator model with companies participating in a 90-day program that culminated in a demo day at the end. In total, 24 companies were invested in.

The entire program was changed this year, according to Accelerator Program Manager Molly Monk, to a year round format.

The ISA can now invest in companies during the spring, summer and fall and instead of it being a 90-day format, it’s a 12-month format.

“We realized that it takes longer than 90 days to build a business,” Monk told Clay & Milk. “And this way we’re more consistently working with teams. Because we were already working with some of our top teams for years after they went through our program, so we decided let’s be honest that we’re going to work with them anyway, so let’s make it a more clear commitment right off the top.”

Monk said when the companies apply, they look for founders who have grit, focus, agility and are coachable.

“Those characteristics apply regardless of what industry they’re in,” Monk explained. “We’re also looking for founders that are in industries that Iowa excels in. That’s not applicable every time but we want to make sure that we’re making investments that are going to be good for Iowa.”

Monk said the ISA is also looking for teams who are committed to Iowa.

“Whether that means they are from here or they have an interest in building their business here, those are things that are important to us,” Monk said. “We want them to become thriving, sustainable companies and since there is an investment piece to it we want to make sure in the end they do make a good return for our investors.”

But Monk said she hopes these companies can create jobs and new innovations.

“We’re just looking for the best of the best and we want to be helpful along the way,” Monk says.

ISA plans to invest in up to 10 companies in 2017 as part of its fourth cohort. Applications for the fall are currently open.